Marianne Dissard covers folk singer Janis Ian's masterpiece 'At Seventeen' from Ian's 1975 album 'Between The Lines'.
Dissard and English producer Raphael Mann produced A VERSION EACH ('his', world-weary and 'hers', fresh and irreverent) of Janis Ian's teenage confessional.
Watch 'His' VIDEO :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBVf0O2_KOA
Watch 'Hers' VIDEO :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATpJr45W0_U
The two MUSIC VIDEOS by Mann from an idea by Dissard juxtapose 1950s Technicolor-hued teenage girls with their TikTok-era counterparts in a heartbreaking commentary on the ongoing pressure of being 'seventeen'.
RECORDED WITH Tucson bassist Thøger Lund (Howe Gelb) and guitarist Gabriel Naïm Amor, Mexico City cellist Belén Ruiz, and English saxophonist Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey), each from their respective lockdown homes, these two versions replace the lilting Bossa-Nova rhythm of the original, taking the song back thirty years before its release date and focusing the song squarely on its lyrics with traditional French chanson-styled vocal interpretation. Joe Mabbott from Minneapolis' Hideway Studios (Rhymesayers, Bones & Beeker) mixed Dissard's production (as he had her previous albums), while Mann mixed 'His' from Ramsgate, Kent.
Raised on Jacques BREL and the more folk-like Georges Brassens, Dissard moved from France to Mesa, AZ at the difficult age of 16, a turn of events which certainly paved the way for a connection to Ian's tale of teenage woos over a new, baffling ALL-AMERICAN background of beauty queens and basketball games. But which teenager, no matter the decade, hasn't "desperately remained at home, inventing lovers on the phone" and which grown-up the world over has not ever been caught "repenting other lives unknown".
from
Rappel*le (2023),
released March 3, 2023
CREDITS
Produced by Raphael Mann and Marianne Dissard
Lyrics/Music : Janis Ian
Bass guitar, clavinet, mixing : Raphael Mann
Vocals : Marianne Dissard
Guitars : Gabriel Naïm Amor
Cello : Belén Ruiz
Flute : Terry Edwards
Mastering : Steve Kitch, AudioMaster, UK